“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked."Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.""How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice."You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This book has to be the most sweetest & intense love story between a H&h I've ever read. Their love for one another started as children. Then they are ripped apart from one another in youth. Oh boy, do you feel their gut-wrenching lose:

CLAIRE: I figured his situation this way: I came into the world to take care of him for his mama. No one else wanted to. . . .

CLAIRE: "Don't send him away! We're his family. You can't send him away! It's not fair!" ROANIE: "I'll take care of Claire, " Roanie begged. "Please, I tried to before, I'll never let nothing happen to her again. Please."CLAIRE: "I won't let anybody send you away, You'll see. They're just confused, that's all. You tell'em. You tell'em you love me and we're gonna get married when we're grown up!"

I probably clinched it with this announcement. When he bent close to me and whispered, with bitterness and misery and determination . . .

ROANIE: "I won't never forget you, I won't never forget any of this,"

I knew he was going away and I couldn't stop it. I kissed him. My swollen mouth against the corner of his bruised one. He didn't flinch, he didn't kiss me back, he was like a blank rock. That was what we did to him. We closed him up inside himself forever. . . .